5 months into this amazing hobby!

[BowedFloor]

Gonna address the things I know:

If you have large amounts of algae growing over three days, you probably have too much phosphate in your water (po4) if you are using RODI water for changes, you may want to look at cutting back the amount of feeding you are doing, or look into running GFO in a reactor.

You can also look at cutting down the amount of time your lights are on. I think most people recommend 4-6 hours.

I'm still a rookie, but I would at least test your phosphate levels.

You might want to frag the acro, but I don't know.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by BowedFloor

Gonna address the things I know:

If you have large amounts of algae growing over three days, you probably have too much phosphate in your water (po4) if you are using RODI water for changes, you may want to look at cutting back the amount of feeding you are doing, or look into running GFO in a reactor.

You can also look at cutting down the amount of time your lights are on. I think most people recommend 4-6 hours.

I'm still a rookie, but I would at least test your phosphate levels.

You might want to frag the acro, but I don't know.

I do use rodi water and feed 2x a day but I have my lights on for 10hr a day

[tang daddy]

Originally Posted by jason604

After the first month I stopped checking the water parimeters. I only put in some KH whenever I remember to(about 1-2times every 2 weeks). I dose calcium with the purple up about 3 times since I got my tank lol. An I never ever checked Mag or dose it(never even bothered to get the kit). Everything in my tank seems to be just thriving and growing very quickly. Dunno what the big fuzz about dosing daily and checking parimeters very few days. Seems like its hugely overrated. Anyways I thought ill Throw in a pics of my koi ponds. Been neglecting it greatly since I got my reef tank lol.

The people that usually test their tanks for alk ca and mg are probally ones who have spent a lot of money on equiptment to grow sps, if you spent $2000 on sps you may want your investment to live....in this case testing would be required!

If you have a few sps that didn't cost very much, then losing it is not a big deal I guess...

I think someone already mentioned but if your tank is mostly softies and a few Lps then the ca and alk won't drop much.

If your tank is 80% sps and all of them were growing and encrusting then the alk ca and mg could drop quite fast.

I use to be like you and drop some ca and alk in whenever, most of the sps grew so I wasn't worried. It wasn't until I neglected my tank for several months and finally one day decided to test just for curiousity sake to see where everything was at, I was shocked my alk was at 4.5 and the other 2 was lower. Algae was growing rampant corals were recessing and dying. Anyways since then I have been abit more diligent with testing and to my suprise params drop at a very fast rate.

To each their own, some people look at their tank and if everything is fine don't test, some test daily because they are trying to get a base line for auto dosing, I now test weekly just to make sure everything is where they should be, and some people couldn't care less where their params are.

I am not trying to lecture you, but just trying to shed some light on the matter, just when I thought I had everything dialed in for dosing I got lazy and skilled testing for about a week and a half, then I started to notice my chalice frags recessing and thought it was something else causing it. To my suprise the alk was at 5. After correcting the params the chalice slowly healed itself. In this hobby you always learn something new.

Your tank is coming along nicely, good luck!

[brizzo]

Originally Posted by jason604

After the first month I stopped checking the water parimeters. I only put in some KH whenever I remember to(about 1-2times every 2 weeks). I dose calcium with the purple up about 3 times since I got my tank lol. An I never ever checked Mag or dose it(never even bothered to get the kit). Everything in my tank seems to be just thriving and growing very quickly. Dunno what the big fuzz about dosing daily and checking parimeters very few days. Seems like its hugely overrated. Anyways I thought ill Throw in a pics of my koi ponds. Been neglecting it greatly since I got my reef tank lol.

If you keep adding chemicals without reason or measurement, you will understand why there is a big fuzz.

As corals grow and coraline spreads, demand will go up -- which will leave your water depleted, things start to go crappy, and you'll be questioning where you went wrong.

[The Guy]

I have the same tube anemone he's decided the side of the tank under a ledge is his home and has never moved, never lost fish to it yet "touch wood", always worried about my clown gobie getting too close but seems to keep his distance.
Your tank looks amazing at 5 months. I'm at 10 months with my tank.
Thanks to all the great reefers here it's been a fun but expensive venture, like one of my good friends on here says, it's like having any addiction and hard on the wallet!

[jason604]

I knew bringing up dosing will have a lot of mixed reviews lol. Each time I check for cal with my API test kit it's always say its at like 550+ is my guess cuz it goes pass the max on the list lol. N for KH each time I test its always 7 with dosing 1-2x between each water change. Everything seems very happy so I don't bother with mag n cal dose. I guess when I get a lot more sps my method will have to change but for now happy with being very slack on maintenance lol.

I'm thinking of fragging some of my zoas soon would any1 like to trade them for some nice sps or brains? =P. also would like to trade my bi-colored blenny.its very healthy n eats like a pig

[tang daddy]

I am not sure how accurate you API test kit is as I only use Elos and salifert. If you're near Jl you could go in to get a water test... If you even care about it.

But if you're happy with where your tank is then I wouldn't worry about it.

[Jakegr]

API is OK for calcium. I always got reasonable values using it. My main issue was losing count of the drops! I wouldn't recommend the Seachem calcium test as the color change is hard to see (although I like that it uses a syringe for the titration so that you do not have to count the drops).

John Coppolino, a well known hobbyist in the US, only tests alkalinity in his amazing SPS tanks.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-cora...l#.UktN7L9TvFI

IMO for reef tanks that consume substantial amounts of calcium, testing for alkalinity and calcium is very important.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by Jakegr

API is OK for calcium. I always got reasonable values using it. My main issue was losing count of the drops! I wouldn't recommend the Seachem calcium test as the color change is hard to see (although I like that it uses a syringe for the titration so that you do not have to count the drops).

John Coppolino, a well known hobbyist in the US, only tests alkalinity in his amazing SPS tanks.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/sps-cora...l#.UktN7L9TvFI

IMO for reef tanks that consume substantial amounts of calcium, testing for alkalinity and calcium is very important.

holy... thats got to be the nicest tank i ever seen... cant imagine how much something like that would cost... brand new BMW? lol